The present invention relates to a rectangular hysteresis magnetic alloy consisting of iron and niobium and more particularly to a rectangular hysteresis magnetic alloy consisting of iron and niobium as main ingredients and at least one element selected from the group consisting of vanadium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, nickel, copper, cobalt, titanium, zirconium, silicon, aluminum, germanium, tin, antimony, beryllium, manganese, cerium and carbon as subingredients.
At present, magnetic alloys exhibiting a rectangular hysteresis loop and having high residual induction and coercive force of more than 2 oersteds are usually used as a magnetic material for memory elements, ferreed switches, latching relays and the like in electromagnetic devices. The manufacture of these articles may require a high temperature working operation such as glass sealing and the like. Therefore, it is desired that these alloys have a good workability and stable magnetic properties even at an elevated temperature (about 800.degree. C).
As the magnetic material satisfying such requirements, there have been used iron-carbon series alloy, iron-manganese series alloy, iron-cobalt series alloy, iron-nickel series alloy and the like. In the Fe--C and Fe--Mn series alloys, however, the magnetic properties are considerably degraded by heating at an elevated temperature although they are cheap and have a good workability. On the other hand, the Fe--Co and Fe--Ni series alloys contain large amounts of expensive cobalt and nickel, respectively, and require a high working operation, so that they are economically unsatisfactory.